Well, "true" value is a weird one, everything ultimately is relative and somewhat subjective.

I'm with you, and perhaps more aggressive about taxing loans against stock as if they were realized gains. Loans that have nothing to do with acquiring the asset that backs the loan (e.g. a loan to buy a house or even improve an existing house backed by the house itself, ok, sure that can get a pass, at least on the primary residence). In the interest of fairness, have an ability to reconcile the tax situation upon repayment of the loan by tax credit. So if one wants to whine about "double taxation", they can be mollified that they will get their extra taxation back if they pay back their debts in the manner expected by tax code. They may still whine that by paying taxes now on gains to be realized later they are giving the government a 0% loan, but that's just the price of accessing their wealth early.